Check out the results for SOL girls’ basketball teams in action Wednesday. To view photos of the CB West/CB East game, please visit the Photo Gallery.
CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 57, CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 46
Few rivalry games match the intensity of the CB East/CB West showdowns, and Wednesday night’s game was another intense battle between the sister schools.
“It really is one of the greatest atmospheres I’ll ever play in,” West junior Corrinne Godshall said. “I know we came out slow tonight, and I personally was shocked – when the ball went out of bounds, there was the loudest noise. I was so taken aback, but we settled in.”
Godshall finished with game highs of 13 points and 12 rebounds. Sophomore Makenzie Mason contributed 12 points and nine boards. Junior Mackenzie Carroll (13 points) and Nicole Munger (11 points) also finished in double figures for the Bucks, who connected on just one three-pointer.
“We didn’t shoot well from the outside,” said West coach Terry Rakowsky, who acknowledged that this game is always special. “This is the third time we’ve beaten them. An East win is an East win, I don’t care what anybody says.
“When they were 30 points better than us, we were playing them tough. That’s why you come here. I was telling our younger girls that the East-West game is such an intense game. A lot of times when these kids go off to college, they’ll never experience that energy in a gym like this. It was great.”
The Bucks trailed 17-10 late in the first period as the Patriots – sparked by six points from senior Lindsay Nier – came out of the gate with the hot hand. A three-point play by Godshall with 16.5 seconds remaining in the quarter not only made it a 17-13 game, it also represented a dramatic swing in momentum.
The Bucks outscored the Patriots 22-8 in the second quarter to go into halftime with a 35-25 lead. Both teams battled foul problems in a half that saw the teams whistled for a combined 23 fouls that resulted in 35 foul shots.
West was whistled for its seventh foul with two minutes remaining in the first quarter and its 10th with six minutes remaining in the half.
“It gets frustrating, but it kind of evened out by the end of the half,” Godshall said.
The Bucks received a tremendous lift from their bench in a second quarter that saw East manage just one field goal.
“In practice, coach makes sure everyone gets playing time because our style is really, really fast, and obviously, no one can play a whole game going that speed,” Godshall said. “It’s really important to have depth, and we’re really fortunate to have depth.”
Mason scored six points in the quarter after senior Taylor Moylan took a seat on the bench in foul trouble. Carroll also had six points in the quarter.
“I just try to play as aggressive as possible,” Mason said. “We definitely got more aggressive as the game went on, and our momentum went up.”
“I think we were stressed and frustrated in the beginning, but we started to relax and calm down.”
The Bucks led by 18 (43-25) after Munger scored on a putback three minutes into the third period, but the Patriots refused to go away, trailing 45-36 after point guard Karoline White scored on a drive. Carroll, however, answered with a three-pointer at the other end, and although Katelyn Miller, who led the Patriots with 11 points, buried both ends of a one-and-one, the Patriots trailed 48-38 entering the final period.
A basket by Nier (nine points) to open the fourth quarter made it a 48-40 game, but the Patriots would get no closer.
“Foul trouble definitely hurt us tonight, but I thought our girls came in and did a great job tonight,” East coach Liz Potash said. “They’re kids we haven’t asked a ton of this season, but I was very happy with the play of our bench tonight.
“I thought Jess Chang came in and did an outstanding job.”
EXTRA SHOTS: Potash credited Nier for taking a charge in the third quarter that changed the momentum when West was pulling away. “We have been talking the last two days, and I said, ‘Somebody needs to take a charge tonight. We’ve got to do it,’ and that changed the second half,” the Patriots’ coach said. “She took that charge, and all of a sudden momentum is swinging, and it looks a little different.”…While East fell to 1-1 in league play (1-2 overall), the Bucks improved to 2-0 (3-0 overall).
Central Bucks East 17 8 13 8-46
Central Bucks West 13 22 13 9-57
PENNRIDGE 52, QUAKERTOWN 37
Ashley George led the Lady Rams with 14 points and 12 rebounds while Devan Rimmer added 12 points and Shelby Schoonover had 11 points. Jess Tennett had 9 rebounds for the Lady Rams under the backboards. While the Panthers fell to 0-2 in the league, (1-2 overall), the Lady Rams are 1-1 in the league (2-3 overall).
SOUDERTON 41, ABINGTON 32
The Indians limited the Ghosts to just 13 first-half points, and their solid defensive play allowed them to survive a pair of low-scoring quarters themselves. Souderton scored just six points in the first quarter and only five in the third quarter.
“We were getting looks, and we just couldn’t finish,” coach Lynn Carroll said. “The shots just weren’t dropping, and we still found a way to win.”
The Indians trailed 8-6 at the end of one quarter but went on a 15-5 tear in the second to go into halftime with a 21-13 lead. That burst allowed them to survive a five-point third quarter that saw the Ghosts outscore the Indians 11-5 to make it a 26-24 game heading into the final quarter. The Indians closed out the game with a 15-8 quarter to seal the Ghosts’ fate.
“We played pretty much a solid 32 minutes of defense,” Carroll said. “Sarah (Derstein) was in a little bit of foul trouble, so Allison Gallagher played (Michael) Harris for almost the whole second quarter. Allison is 5-8 playing a 6-2 American-bound post player, and she did great. She had help when she needed it from her teammates.
“Noelle Noble came in for Sarah and gave us really, really good minutes.”
Senior Bianca Picard led the Indians with 12 points, Gallagher added 11, and Katie O’Connor had eight. Derstein finished with six points.
“Bianca, Katie and Allison made foul shots down the stretch to seal it,” Carroll said. “Abington is a good team that just beat a couple of good teams, and they’re going to have a good season, so this was a really good win for us.”
Harris led all scorers with 16 points and Deja Rawls added 12 in a game that saw just three players score for Abington.
The Indians and Ghosts are both 3-2 on the young season.
“Starting with Mount (St. Joe’s), that’s a brutal team to have to start the season with, and to lose to North Penn the way we lost to them – it’s been a good week of practice,” Carroll said. “This was really a team effort. Everybody that stepped on the court contributed.
“Allison and Bianca really played tough on Rawls and tried to make her take difficult shots. It was our best boxing out effort of the season. We really limited their second chance opportunities, and we had 11 offensive rebounds. We talked about – we have to do the little things better, and we did that last night and tonight.”
Abington 8 5 11 8-32
Souderton 6 15 5 15-41
WILLIAM TENNENT 66, POTTSGROVE 44
The Panthers made the 90-minute bus ride to Pottsgrove worth their while earning the huge non-league win. The Panthers took a 27-21 lead into halftime and then blew the game open with an 19-point third quarter that featured 10 points from Angie Pomponio and the remaining nine from Nikki Alden.
“We changed our defense a little bit to contain one of their players,” said Paul Veltre of Alliya Austin. “She had 15 points, and 11 of them were in the first half. We changed our defense and focused on her.
“Nikki and Angie started scoring. We need them quite a bit because we’re very inexperienced.”
Alden finished with a game-high 20 points to go along with eight rebounds while Pomponio had 18. The Panthers connected on 15-of-18 from the foul line.
With the win, the Panthers improved to 4-1 on the season.
William Tennent 9 18 19 20-66
Pottsgrove 6 15 11 12-44
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